Weekend Report :)

Isn’t it odd how sometimes the weather mimics one’s mood? Early in the week it was rainy and I was feeling kind of glum. This weekend, it was warm and sunny, and I felt great!

Fri May 26

I mentioned in an earlier post that Diogo took me to the anthropology department, FFLCH (pronounced fafelachee and literally the Faculty of (F)ilosophy, Literature and (C)cience Humans). This week there were some seminars being offered, and the one on Friday was about ethnographic film (WOOOO!!! …… what?) and was being presented by a guy from the University of Manchester. So I decided to go. I went really early because I didn`t know exactly where I was going. But it turns out it was really easy to find, so I was there 45 minutes before it started. So I waited around. Then it was supposed to start at 9:30, but in traditional Brazilian fashion, it was late. It finally started at just after 10:00, after I had been waiting more than an hour. And guess what? It was in Portuguese!! Go figure the guy from Manchester spoke perfect Portuguese. No fair! So after a few minutes I gave up and left. I could understand a few words, like filme and anthropologie and ethnographie… but that’s not quite enough to be worthwhile ;) So I headed back to the office and did some work. Actually I got quite a bit done. I finally feel like I have stuff to do and things to contribute. And I think soon I will be quite busy because we are starting some new projects. More later. I left around 5:00 and managed to get stuck in rush hour traffic coming home. The bus was ok, but the subway was crazy!! When people told me that sometimes you don’t need to hold onto the pole because you are so squished the people around you hold you up, I didn’t believe them. But it’s true! In the evening I went out with Iza’s family to what her Mom called a “Happy Hour” but I think she was a little mistaken in this translation :P It was just a social gathering and dinner at the hospital social club. It was nice, and I had some caipirinha.

Can you read this? I can read most of it!

Sat May 27

Saturday was awesome!! Iza and I had to get up early, because we had an AIESEC General Meeting at 9:00am at FEA. It was cool to go to the university and see everyone gathered (well most people). And I was also really excited because I was doing my Canada presentation!!! I got to go first, and I think they really liked it. I asked them some questions, like “what do you think of when you think of Canada?” Ice! Hockey! French! Etc. And I stumped them with a few questions, like “Who is Canada’s Head of State?” At the end I played Canada is Really Big and they loved it, and then I passed out pins and maple syrup and candies. So it went really well. Then in the rest of the meeting we talked about the new structure and the new projects we will be working on. In @USP there is a lot more that the members are “required” to do, and all the new members will not be considered full members of AIESEC until they are done. It is much more strict that in Victoria. But that’s another issue. After the meeting I went with Koba, Judy, Koge and Isabel (from Columbia) to Liberdade (the Japanese community). We did some shopping and bought some food. It was very odd to walk into the mall and hear music from Kenshin being played. There was a lot of anime stuff, but I’m pretty sure most of it was bootleg. Then Isabel and I went to Koge’s house for dinner. He lives with his family in an apartment on the other side of the city from Iza’s. We all chopped up the veggies and talked about different things. We talked a lot about CONADE and how it could have been better with more integration between the new and old members. Then we cooked dinner, which was of course Japanese food. We put all the veggies and some meat into an electric pot on the table and then coated it with Soiya (Soy Sauce) and then covered it and let it cook for a few minutes. Then you spoon some out with chopsticks and eat it over rice. It was very good! A couple of the veggies were odd choices (like lettuce) but it was pretty yummy. After dinner Isabel had to go home, but I stayed and talked to Koge some more. I have to spend as much time as I can with him because next week he is moving to Rio! He got a job there, so I won’t see him any more (except on trips to Rio ;) ). Everyone is sad that he is leaving because he has done so much for @USP and he’s a really nice person. We talked for a while and then his Mom came home and I talked to her (through Koge) for a long time. She and Koge asked me a lot about Canada. I also found out that his sister has done a lot of volunteer work in Sao Paulo and that she can arrange a tour of a flavela for me. It seems like of odd, actually, to do a “tour” of such a place (the flavelas are the shanty towns) but I would really like to see what they are like, so I might take her up on the offer. I took the subway home and went to bed fairly early since I had been up early in the morning.

USP Wooo!

back (L->R): Koba, Judy, Maira, Iza, Guilherme, Koge, Renato ... front (L->R): Flavia, Fernando

Sun May 28

Today was fairly mellow. I slept in a little and then after breakfast I went with Iza’s parents to her aunt’s house for lunch. There was a old guy there who made genuine Italian pasta from scratch! It was interesting to see. There were a couple of little girls there that were soooo cute, but they kept trying to talk to me and I didn’t know what to say! I ate some bread with cheese spread, hamburgers, several plates of the pasta and then some dessert as well. But it was good. We watched some TV and just kinda hung out. Actually there’s really not that much to say. It was a really nice warm day and I could finally pull out my sandals again. I had some coconut water and pineapple juice as well, and while both are drinkable, I’m not a huge fan.

Laundry? No, Pasta!

Ah ha! Fetucchini!

Sorry again for the super long posts >_<

One more section, that I hope I can add to later:

Life as a Gringo (foreigner): Part I

Now that I have been here for three weeks, I’m starting to get more used to things. I have noticed that people on the bus and the subway sometimes look at me funny. The thing is, São Paulo is so multicultural I COULD be Brazilian, so nobody is quite sure. Sometimes people will start talking to me in Portuguese and I usually just nod or, if I have to, say “Eu não falo portugês” [I don’t speak Portuguese]. On Friday, I had to call Tatiana while I was on the subway. So I called her and told her I was on my way home, and then as I hung up the phone, I realized that everyone was looking at me. Oh ya… I was just speaking a foreign language in front of everybody :P I hadn’t really occurred to me that that was weird, but I guess it is. Just something I noticed…

I have some more “Things I noticed” as well (I started writing them down) but since this post is fairly long, maybe I’ll save them for next time ;)

Tchau!